CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

Artist Description

Fifty years of nonstop touring, performing and recording have reaped huge rewards. Charlie Musselwhite is living proof that great music only gets better with age. This man cut his (musical) teeth alongside Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, (Charlie’s Best Man at his wedding to Henrietta) and everyone on the south side of Chicago in the early 1960’s – thank your lucky stars he is still with us telling the truth with a voice and harp tone like no other.

Charlie Musselwhite may be the only musician to get a huge ovation just for opening his briefcase. Fans know that’s where he keeps his harmonicas and they’re about to hear one of the true masters work his magic on the humble instrument.

Over 50 years ago, Charlie released his first album, the classic Stand Back! which he recorded at age 22. Charlie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2010.

To date, Charlie has won 35 Blues Music Awards, and has been nominated for a Grammy 12 times, taking home his first win in 2015 for his collaboration with Ben Harper on Get Up!

“Meeting Charlie was huge to me,” said Ben Harper in reference to the GET UP project. “Knowing his music but also his commitment to the blues and everything he brought to that, When you get the call to sit at the table with kings, you had better have a well-pressed suit. I knew that time would come, so I kept setting material aside. But Charlie Musselwhite is the north star of this record. We were following him. The songs really came to life around Charlie and his sensibilities. We revolved around him and his harp; you can hear that”

As Charlie often says, “The blues is your buddy in good times and your comforter in bad times. It empowers you to keep going. It is secular spiritual music, the gospel blues. It’s music from the heart instead of the head.”